Life After Life: Beyond the Veil
by Raven of Glen
Summary: Sirius Black fell through the veil and so left the living realm, but landed in the realm of the dead. And so, the greatest adventure Sirius will ever take has begun but first he must learn what real death is about. ((Rating is subject to change))
1. Realization

Disclaimer: All of Harry Potter's characters and such are owned by JK Rowling and Co. I own none of them- of course. And the perception on death is the story is mine I suppose since its really a different sort than I know of.  
  
Authors Note: Anyone who doesn't like my little spin on death, please don't lynch me or anything. I'm just writing it for the sake of writing's sake and letting my imagination run free. If you don't like it, just read a different fan fiction, I just felt like giving the face of death a nice change of pace *nod*  
  
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The ground upon which he landed from his fall was hard and knocked his breath from his lungs. The man who had fallen lay on the earthy floor for a dazed moment before remembering what happened.  
  
He leapt to his feet fearing he was on the ground for a moment too long and Bellatrix had just enough time to attack him while he was off his guard. He held out his wand, which he still had firmly in his grasp, and looked around for Bellatrix Lestrange. He was surprised to see her nowhere in his sight. Infact no one was in his sight. He wasn't even where he had last been before he fell.  
  
He struggled to remember what exactly had happened. It was all so fast. Bellatrix's curse had hit him, he knew that, but what had happened after that he didn't know. All he could remember was falling... through the veil.  
  
He looked around the small room he was standing in. The walls were made of stone and it had a earthen floor. There were no other features in the room except a wooden door with a bronze colored handle. The temperature was very suffocating warm, like a hot, humid day with no windows cracked to let in a cooling breeze.  
  
Sirius ran to the door and opened it. The warm handle squeaked as it turned and with a great amount of effort he was able to open the door. The hinges creaked as they swung open as if they had been there for a long amount of time but had never been moved and needed a good amount of oil. How long had he been in there for them to become like that?  
  
The first thing Sirius saw as he left the room was a wall-size mirror on the opposite wall. It was a very peculiar mirror and rippled as if it were water. Sirius took a quick scan around the otherwise empty chamber before turning back to the mirror.  
  
As he stared at his reflection it stared back. The watery mirror was just a plain mirror with some sort of magical charm on it, Sirius reasoned. But it was starting to slow its rippling as if a movement had just recently stopped in its watery surface. He reached out to touch its glimmering surface.  
  
It was hard, as if it were made of normal glass. But still a moving, shifting pane of glass. Sirius sighed- he had expected something more. Something more dramatic like a portal to some unseen location.  
  
He looked around the chamber, it was as featureless as the other room had been but instead of a door there was an archway with a cloth hanging from it. The exact same sort of appearance as the veil had been. The only difference between this one and the one before was that this one did not move at all. There was no magical breeze and Sirius certainly did not hear any whispers. The arch was more elegant as the one Sirius had seen before. It was made out of a pale colored stone and was obviously made sometime before the other. The stone was smooth except for a few carvings towards the top which were all in a different language and thus Sirius could not translate it's symbols.  
  
He looked around, starting to wonder where everyone was once more. Had they left him? Certainly they had not. Had they? Or had the Death Eaters all won? The very thought of the Death Eaters harming Harry or anyone for that fact sent a fire through Sirius. Harry was the only thing that really pulled Sirius through life nowadays. Harry Potter was like Sirius's son, brother and best friend all in one.  
  
He took a couple steps towards the archway of an exit when he glanced back at the mirror. His body was still reflected in it but where Sirius had been before. His mirrored form was staring at him. Sirius turned to face this apparition in the mirror. Sirius walked back to the mirror and stood in front of the image of him.  
  
The change started slowly before increasing greatly. The image of him started to go back in age. The years melted away and soon the image was in his twenties. Then his teens. The Sirius in the mirror was soon a child and then a baby. The baby sat on the earthen floor before it started to age. The baby became a child before turning into a teen. Soon before long the familiar image stood there, identical to Sirius as he currently was. But then the image winked and disappeared. And as soon as he disappeared the water-like glass of the mirror which has recently stopped rippling started to boil. Pieces of the glass would spray from its surface before falling back into its depths and more would spray. Just as Sirius' reaction told him to get away and Sirius had managed to jump back about three paces the mirror stopped boiling. And now there was a different scene reflected than what it had been reflecting before.  
  
It was no longer a reflection but an image of the room Sirius and the others had been fighting the Death Eaters in. In the room he could see himself fighting with Bellatrix. He could even see Harry supporting Neville to stand correctly as Dumbledore walk in. Sirius looked back at him and Bellatrix fight.  
  
I"Come on, you can do better than that!" his image yelled as he ducked from Bellatrix's hex.  
  
His image was still laughing when another hex of Bellatrix's hit him. /I  
  
Sirius inched closer to the mirror. That was the last that he remembered. Now he could find out what really happened.  
  
IThe image of him fell- right through the veil.  
  
"SIRIUS! SIRIUS!" Harry yelled and ran towards Sirius who had disappeared through the veil in the scene.  
  
Lupin, who had seen Sirius' disappearing through the veil, grabbed Harry around the chest and held him back with all his might.  
  
"There is nothing you can do, Harry--" Lupin said struggling to hold Harry back.  
  
"Get him, save him, he's only just gone though!" Harry yelled desperately.  
  
"Its too late Harry-"  
  
"We can still reach him-"  
  
As Harry still struggled with all his might, Lupin stubbornly held on. He could not let Harry go. "There's nothing you can do, Harry.nothing.He's gone."/I  
  
Sirius stepped back from the mirror in horror.  
  
"I-I'm dead? B-But-" He whispered softly, breathlessly. It could not be possible. In the scene he had obviously fallen through the veil to his death but yet here he stood as one alive could stand.  
  
Sirius stepped back from the mirror before being stopped by the opposite wall. He slowly slid down the wall in shock. This could not be happening. Grief beat through his heart and spread through his veins. Not a pity for himself, but that he felt he had died a meaningless death. And lived a meaningless death. He had failed Harry. He had failed everyone.  
  
Sirius put his head in his hands- a terrible pounding filled his head and about a dozen emotions filled him. This was the end, wasn't it? There was no going back. He was dead. Dead for all eternity now, there was no going back.  
  
It was the finality that scared Sirius the most. There was no spell that Sirius knew of that could bring the dead back to the living. And certainly such a spell would need a body. Sirius' own body had disappeared through the veil and so a spell like that would probably not work.  
  
What seemed like hours passed of Sirius sitting in the darkened area, all hope gone. Life had left him. Everything had left him. He was all alone. A panic and terror filled him that he had not felt in years- a feeling similar to the one he felt in his wretched cell in Azkaban.  
  
Sirius suddenly looked up as a movement caught his eye- at the mirror that had stopped rippling. It now was motionless and was like a true mirror. His image still stood there- but it had obviously moved closer to the glass and was now unmoving except for the fact that his reflection's hair and robes were rippling as if in a soft wind. And then- quite suddenly- the water-like mirror started to ripple violently. And as if it were true water, the form behind it-Sirius' reflection-stepped through it, still staring at him.  
  
Sirius jumped to his feet as a voice he knew as his own spoke from the other form.  
  
"At long last we meet Sirius Black. I've been waiting for you to come here for almost thirty-six years." 


	2. Tanek the Never Living

Disclaimer: All of Harry Potter's characters and such are owned by JK Rowling and Co. I own none of them- of course. And the perception on death is the story is mine I suppose since its really a different sort than I know of.  
  
Authors Note: Anyone who doesn't like my little spin on death, please don't lynch me or anything. I'm just writing it for the sake of writing's sake and letting my imagination run free. If you don't like it, just read a different fan fiction, I just felt like giving the face of death a nice change of pace *nod*  
  
((Now that that's done with))  
  
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Sirius' replica took another step towards him when it began to change into someone else. He looked normal- his short black hair and pale skin was nothing as extraordinary as the man's eyes. They were the most violent shades of amber gold that Sirius had ever seen. Not that he had seen many people with yellowish eyes before but that wasn't the point. And although he looked human, Sirius got the feeling that something was not right and that caused him to be wary of this being.  
  
His robes were also noteworthy. They were the blackest black his eyes could ever comprehend. They seemed to be the nothingness of space more than black. And was Sirius only imagining that light was being pulled into the darkness of the robes? There were no shadows in the robes for the darkest color doesn't have a shadow does it? And there was no light cast upon it from the firelight of the torches on the walls.  
  
"Who are you?" Sirius asked, his voice breaking the silence that had been standing there for a couple moments.  
  
The man smiled, amused for some reason. "I am your guide, Sirius Black. I'm the one who was chosen to help you go from living to dead. Without guides, most souls who come through here go just plain nuts with confusion. Much fun at first to watch them stare blankly around, not even understanding what was going on- but that got old. And thus I was put to work." He said looking thoughtful but at the same time disgusted at the thought that he must work. "Apparently the never-living, such as myself, must work too."  
  
Sirius looked at him oddly not expecting the sudden history lesson. He was about to ask him another question when he started talking again. It was like he could happily talk for hours.  
  
"I volunteered for you, yes. I should be grateful for you. We had a bet going about when you'd kick the bucket. No offence of course but, it gets boring here. And seeing that although we guides don't know when one would die- we like betting about times of death. As I said, it gets rather boring here."  
  
"You won?"  
  
He smirked in a way that reminded Sirius of Snape, "Naturally. You got me seventy years of vacation. Vacation from having to do this whole guide work I mean. It gets tiring after a while." He paused and Sirius thought he caught a note of a slight sad tone in his last statement. But if there really was it soon disappeared as he went on. "I used a mortal saying, I did. 'The star that burns brightest dies in half the time'. So- I used the fact that your parents named you Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, to name your death date. But we can never tell the way one's going to die though. The way you died caused such a stir here. Such a stir."  
  
"Why?"  
  
He looked at Sirius as if he should already have known. "Because it is a most unheard of way to die! Yes, there were a few others to go through it. But still. There have been trillions and trillions of souls to die and thus go through here. And for only a select few to die going through the veil. Well, Sirius Black, that is quite something indeed."  
  
Sirius looked away to the archway again. It was too soon in his sudden death for him to really understand it yet. "What exactly is this place? Hell or something?"  
  
"You mortals and your Hell. No- not in the least. It is not in our interest to judge you. Who are we to judge you? For evil is only perception as is about everything. The cat that kills the mouse-" He stopped his eyes glimmering in amusement. "-Or indeed the dog that kills the rat, is considered getting rid of a pest. But in the rat's eyes, it's been murdered. And who is to say which point of view has more value? No, we do not punish or praise souls here. And this place, is the afterlife. Well, not exactly, but you'll see."  
  
It took a moment for Sirius to grasp what he had meant and his guide allowed it.  
  
"But come now, Sirius Black. Before we can get to all of that-which I promise will be answered in time-we must go see Her. Which I don't understand why She would wish to see one such as yourself but its not quite my place to question Her ways-"  
  
"Who is 'her'?"  
  
"Foolish mortal, its Her with a capital 'h'. She is the ruler of this place. Of course, She could be a He you know. She appears as to the mortal She sees' likings. To most women She appears as male and to most men She appears as female. But, this is a politically correct afterlife so, I guess She could appear as a man for a man or a woman for a woman. She appears as a female to me though, just because I've never lived doesn't mean I haven't a preference." He allowed himself a laugh.  
  
Sirius rolled his eyes. "How do we get there?" he said rather impatiently. He'd rather like to look around than listen to his guide's mindless talking.  
  
"Oh yes, come with me, mortal. But I warn you. Answer Her questions with whatever you wish. But remember She knows all, sees all and remembers all."  
  
"Then what is the point of answering Her questions?" he asked quite logically. If She knew all that there was, why should She waste her time asking me questions?  
  
His eyes flashed slightly, an obvious sign that he was annoyed. But to Sirius it did not seem he was annoyed at him but at something else. "Just as it is not MY place to question Her, it is certainly not YOURS. She has Her reasons, I assume. Who knows, She may be bored and wants some freshly dead to talk to."  
  
The silence that had vanished because of their conversation grew again for a couple moments before Sirius' guide spoke again.  
  
"Come- we've wasted enough time. Let's go," he said walking through the archway that led to the exit. He had disappeared through the veil when his head appeared through it again. "And- my name is Tanek. Please remember it."  
  
And so he disappeared once more, and Sirius followed Tanek through the veil and entered the Afterlife.  
  
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A/N- Yes, this chapter was quite painful to write but I hope it wasn't that horrible. I'm not too fond of writing extensive dialogue. And I hope Tanek wasn't that awful of a made up character (Seeing he's going to be quite the important character later on). Whoo! I got reviews! *glee*  
  
Oh and to anyone worrying 'She' is not a Mary Sue ((Mary Sues are the spawn of Satan in my opinion)) and no- there is no romance in this story. I am horrible at writing romance. And I don't think there would be much romance after death...  
  
Okay okay- enough talking on my part. Please read and review! Flames will be used for me to go pyro. And now, I go to write next chapter. 


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